Reassignment
by Dr. Psyche
Summary: Lyzack is sent to a mining outpost run by Strika, and comes face to face with Airachnid who wants to kill her. Meanwhile the Seekers have broken up and Slipstream is sent to the Outpost as well. The two find each other and strike up a friendship.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Welcome to Al-Jabr

Wrote this Fanfic as a tribute to the Decepticon fembots out there, don't think they get enough screen time.

Ultimately this fanfic aims to show the War itself and how battles go. Lyzack will be the focus along with Slipstream.

As for continuity: Think of this as G1 IDW/Cartoon with aspects of many other canons thrown in.

I don't own anything.

X

The transport shuttle had come out of light-speed, and now cruised along the planet Remar. Lyzack looked out the window, at the planet, so many untapped resources present. The space station Al-Jabr was coming into view, and the autopilot's monotone voice came on over the speakers, informing her that they would arrive in Fifteen Minutes. Al-Jabr orbited a large brown planet called Decaboid.

Lyzack took another look around the shuttle, it was mostly used for cargo, and several metal crates lined the back. They all contained weapons, generic servos and other parts for repair, as well as a few commicubes.

Lyzack gathered her possessions, an energon blade/ rifle combination, and a commucube she had customized for herself, containing pictures of her old life, and some recorded memories she liked to watch. She separated the blade and rifle and stored them on her wings. She stored the cube in a compartment on her side and waited for the ship to dock.

Al-Jabr was a large station, it was a long metal rod with three rings around it, the largest had several levels, and 5 different docks for ships, the two smaller ones were located above and below the large ring and were mostly for observation. A sixth dock met a twilight elevator on the planet, located on a heavily guarded mine. The Locals and Autobot group would frequently attack it, which necessitated the command center.

The Ship docked, and depressurized, a helper drone moved in and began unloading. Lyzack helped the diminutive droid, as two diagnostic drones came in and began unloading the contents in the boxes.

Lyzack walked up to the dock manager, Octane, and asked "Excuse me, I've just been assigned, where am I to report to?"

Octane turned around and looked her over, "Report to Commander Strika, she'll give you a directive and show you your quarters."

Lyzack thanked him and was off, one Diagnostic Drone assigned to show her to the General.

"How odd, that the commander herself seems to introduce the new recruits," she thought.

She followed the Diagnostic drone, which pulled a data pad from a slot in the wall and handed it to her. As she followed it, she looked at all the personal, matching names to the ones she passed. In addition to Octane, she passed Deluge, a scientist, and one of the interrogators, an eight-legged fembot named Airachnid, the two bots nearby, Ruckus and Hydrahead, steered clear of her, and the diagnostic drone even seemed to move away.

Airachnid looked her over, and Lyzack shivered slightly, her file listed her as a torture technician.

She had arrived at Strika's quarters. The drone departed leaving her in front of the impressive door.

Lyzack knocked once

"Come in." Boomed a voice from inside.

Lyzack pushed a button and the door slid open. Inside was a large office like room. A reinforced blast window looked out onto the planet, and a desk, large enough for the room's occupant, sat in front of it. The walls were covered in holographic awards or honors that General Strika had achieved in her life, as well as pictures of other high ranking officers.

Strika was behind the desk, a large data pad on it. Strika was a large-bot, larger than all the other fembots that Lyzack had met. She was slightly shorter than Deathsaurus, but she was definitely broader.

Strika's optics bore into Lyzack, who began to really feel her diminutive height more than usual.

"You are from Deathsaurus's unit correct?" Strika asked.

"Yes, ma-am, Commander, I mean," Lyzack said, mentally cursing herself for breach in protocol.

Strika paid it no comment to the formalities, "I've been informed you were a servant of Deathsaurus," Strika stated.

"Yes, commander," Lyzack said.

"We have no use for servants here, only warriors," Strika said, glaring at her.

"Yes commander, I've been into combat," Lyzack stated, remembering the few battles she was in.

"Your Bio informs me of certain bladed training," Strika said, "You will be assigned to patrol E, you're room is on Deck 6 room 4, with Windsweeper, you are to report for duty on your assigned day."

Strika wrote a code down on her data pad which Lyzack scanned, several schedules beamed into her processor, and she was aware of her patrol schedule, which would star three days from then.

"Dismissed," Strika said.

X

Alright, please Rate and Review.

Notes: Octane: Henkei body, Lyzack wings of Honor Body, and Strika is in her Machine Wars Body. Diagnostic Drones look as they do in Beast Machines.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Exploring

I don't own anything.

Lyzack walked through the corridors, before finally arriving at her room. She pressed the button and the door slid open. She looked inside the habitat, it was really clean, 2 recharging slabs were on either walls, both had two shelves above them for personal effects. A Data-port was located on the wall directly from the door, allowing for communication. Near the bed (recharge-slab) on her right was another Con, furiously scrubbing one end of the slab.

"Um, hello," Lyzack began, "Windsweeper?"

Windsweeper turned to face her, he was a red-orange-grey bot with parts that made her think he could fly.

"Don't you take one step in here, who are you?" he asked.

"I'm Lyzack, I'm rooming with you," she said.

Windsweeper cursed, and remembered the message he had gotten, Strika wasn't happy that he annoyed his other three roommates so much they all demanded transfer.

Lyzack stepped in, and Windsweeper winced, as she was probably getting foreign contaminant all over the floor.

She pointed at the recharge-slab, asking if it was hers, he nodded and went back to scrubbing the end of his bed.

She sat down, and took her cube out and placed it on the shelf above her, and the shelf above that she placed her weapons.

Some of the data she had received from the transmission told her to get accustomed to the surroundings before she was deployed. She left her stuff and went to see the ship. As soon as she'd gone, Windsweeper began scrubbing at where she had stood.

She looked around the ship. The central area had a few elevators that would take her to the observation decks. The Observation decks, she noted, had lots of weaponry on them, turrets and anti-ship missiles.

She watched two cons load one and use it to blast away some asteroids. She took the elevator down to the main deck, finding the mess, where several bots: Spectro, Sqawkbox and Wingspan were laughing about the culture of the natives; a biomechanical species, finding their ways ludicrous. She left and went to the waste disposal, where the cranky head janitor, Crankcase, got annoyed at her and told her to leave. She saw him drop his current load of scrapmetal into the atmosphere, letting it burn up. She saw the lower observation deck, it was very much similar to the upper observation deck, viewing and weaponry, one of the bots Ser-Ket, followed her into the elevator.

Ser-ket had an animalistic appearance, and her colors reminded Lyzack of Barrage, an insecticon she had met in passing.

Ser-Ket had wide movable wings, and a claw or tail in her back. Lyzack was always suspicious of cons with animalistic alt-modes, the Insecticons and Terrocons weren't pleasant.

Ser-Ket caught Lyzack looking at her.

"See anything you like?" she asked.

Lyzack was taken aback, "I'm sorry, I'm just new here," she said.

"Ah, the new girl," Ser-Kt said, extending a claw, which Lyzack shook.

Ser-Ket smiled at her, a smile which Lyzack found off putting, "I really should introduce you to Airachnid, she'd love you," Ser-Ket said.

"What's your chasse? You look like a sky-raider," Ser-Ket said.

"Oh, I am, I know it's a little outdated," Lyzack said.

"Huh, but other than that, I haven't seen a Female Decepticon in a while, It's just me Airachnid and Strika, whenever she shows," Ser-Ket said.

"Huh, well, I haven't seen any female cons in a while," Lyzack said, remembering only Esmeral.

"Well, we should get to know you better, come to rec-room 3 tomorrow at around this time," Ser-Ket smiled at her again, and departed from the elevator.

Lyzack rode it to her floor and got off. Ser-Ket was off-putting, but it might just be her design, she seemed nice enough, and finding a non-hostile Con was so hard now-a-days.

She smiled, perhaps she'd met her first friend.

X

Rate and Review Please: What do you like, what needs work, and Who do you want to see.

Now as for the characters appearances:

Ser-Ket: Prime Body. Airachnid Prime body. Windsweeper, Squawkbox and Wingspan are all in their original forms as is Crankcase.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Breaking the Fellowship

We take a break from our protagonist and focus on someone else. I do not own Transformers, Hasbro does.

* * *

"Fellow Seekers," Starscream said, making a grandiose gesture, "We have made another successful bombing raid."

A few bots gave out a cheer, Slipstream just reclined in her chair and let out a groan.

"Now our bombing quota has met, fifteen runs in the past month, right on schedule!" Starscream said.

Another round of cheer rose from the ranks of flight enabled Decepticons

"Finally, I thought we'd never get out of the Yuani Campaign," Acid-Storm said, the green-seeker was talking to Dirge.

"We ain't out of the woods yet," Dirge said.

"However, the battle remains to be fought," Starscream continued, "As such, we'll be staying another month to fill another bombing quota, at this rate, we'll be able to conquer the other half of this hemisphere by the end of this year!"

A collective groan emerged from the gathered cons.

"Told ya so," Dirge said.

They were dismissed and headed back to their quarters.

"So the fearless leader leads us back into battle, into the thick of our patriotic war," Slipstream said, "Truly he is the great hero of Yuani,"

"Eh, give Screamer a break, we all wanna see a victory," Thundercracker said.

"Does that Victory involve Starscream flying above Lugnut to avoid the Anti-Air cannons, or does it involve him only holding half the amount of bombs, so he can drop and run faster?" Slipstream asked.

"Probably neither," Thundercracker said.

"He's just showboating so he can look better than all the other generals, by next week he's probably going to try and off Megatron again, isn't he?" she asked.

"Oh yes, this time he plans to poison his drink," Thundercracker said.

"Wait," Slipstream said, stopping, "Didn't he try that already? Megatron smashed the glass and stabbed Screamer's optics."

"Oh yeah, I remember. Good times," Thundercracker said.

Slipstream smiled at the memory and went to her room.

The next day was fairly standard, the air force went underway, Slipstream took her place next to Skywarp and Thundercracker, Starscream took the lead right in front of them. Behind them Lugnut flew, with Blitzwing and Astrotrain flanking his right, and the Coneheads flanking his left. Surrounding them was a battalion of Vehicons and Other Seekers. Acid-Storm, Triggerhappy and Slugslinger brought up the rear.

The raid started well, they moved into position and unleashed their weaponry on the nearest stronghold. The Installation fell quickly and Starscream laughed as the small bots, almost ant-like, ran from them, only to be blown up or torn apart by shrapnel.

The second installation shot up a plethora of surface to air missiles. The Vehicons returned fire, blowing up most and trying to evade the rest. Three Vehicons were destroyed, two others and Thrust were damaged and had to turn back.

The second bombing raid was also successful, a detachment of jets flew right down into the Autobot munitions factory and fired their missiles. Various Autobot turrets sprang up and shot at them, tearing one's wings apart and destroying two others. One seeker dropped and unguided bomb and let the momentum carry it straight into the turret operator's face, blowing him and his weapon up.

They began to bomb supply lines leading away from the base, when they found a contingent of Autobot fliers heading toward them. Starscream was first to engage, flying forward, right before he did, he ordered Skywarp to teleport himself and three other seekers right behind the contingent, they appeared, and opened fire on the unsuspecting rear, blowing up one bot and downing three others. Starscream hit one Autobot with a side-winder and engaged another. One of them, Powerglide, used his machine gun to fire into and destroy a Vehicon's grill, sending him down. The other 14 Autobots rushed to challenge the Decepticons, with Triggerhappy and Slugslinger moving from their rear position to attack.

The dogfight persisted, while Acid-Storm and two vehicons continued the bombing raid, testing out his chemicals for maximum damage.

Powerglide evaded the much slower Lugnut's machine guns, flying loops around him and scoring hits all over. Blitzwing was shot down, but he just transformed to tank mode and smashed into one of the Autobot's cock-pits, crushing the nose and canopy, killing him, he then re converted back into a jet, made a crash landing, and took on ground forces as a tank.

Astrotrain moved his top mounted cannon to fire on Powerglide, he dodged it, but in doing so got back into Lugnut's line of fire. The large Decepticon's machine-gun shredded one of Powerglide's wings and he had to land.

A seeker jet blasted off the tailfins of one Autobot plane, and sent it down, shooting at it until the bot exploded.

Skywarp was blindsided, and had his cockpit shot up by an Autobot. The damage knocked him out and he went into a nosedive.

"We got a Seeker down," Thundercracker yelled.

"It's only Skywarp," Slipstream said curtly.

Thundercracker growled, transformed and flew after Skywarp, grabbing him and another downed Seeker, and flying back towards allied territory.

"Sentimental idiot," Slipstream thought.

The remaining Autobots fought until only three were airborn, and they flew off, Slugslinger getting one last shot in to blow off one of their wings.

The Decepticons flew to the third target who had used the distraction to raise their weapons and shields. Dirge and Slugslinger were damaged, and the airborne injured retreated to Astrotrain. Starscream ordered them to continue but the group retreated, Lugnut giving one last go, crippling most of their shields, but taking severe damage in the process. Defeated, the pack flew home.

Later

Starscream pounded his fist down on the war table "How dare you defy me and retreat, I can't believe this!" He shouted at the assembled group.

Acid Storm, Slipstream, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Blitzwing and Ramjet all sat at the table.

"Because of your incompetence, we lost our squad and couldn't destroy the final target. Your failure has caused us all to fail," he said.

Skywarp let out his bored groan, and Slipstream bit down on a remark she was going to make.

"Well, I suppose we'll have to do better, tomorrow," Starscream said, scowling.

"No!" Ramjet yelled, slamming a fist onto the war table, "We lost over half the squad to that bombing run, an unnecessary one, as we had finished the job. We should all be on the nearest cruiser out of here, not risking our skid-plates for some planet."

"You have something to say Ramjet?" Starscream asked, the acidly.

"You're a terrible leader, your plan involved us running at the fortified enemy, after a dogfight, a plan that could have been avoided entirely. We filled our quota, we should be gone, not ego stroking your resume," Ramjet said.

"Watch your tongue and no your place, Ramjet," Starscream said, growling.

Ramjet stood up quickly, letting his chair clatter to the floor, "Screw you Scream, I've had enough of your orders," he said.

Slipstream was interested now, as was Skywarp.

"Is this an act of treachery, of usurpation, do you wish to take command?" Starscream mocked.

"Well, you ain't no stranger to it are you Scream," Ramjet said, closing the distance and glaring at his face.

Starscream smirked, that smug smirk which he knew pissed everyone off, what was Ramjet going to do, take command? At that point, Ramjet slammed his forehead into Starscream's, knocking him over.

Starscream was stunned, as he lay on the floor, rubbing his forehead.

Ramjet glared down at him.

"Yes, finally something interesting," Skywarp said, clapping his hands together.

"For once, I actually agree with the idiot, " Slipstream said, "Starscream, you just got beaten by the guy who crashes into things, you may have actually reached a new low."

Thundercracker got up and between the two "Stop it both of you. You're acting like a couple of protoforms wining for a parent. Save the aggression for-"

Ramjet and Starscream both shoved him out of the way, and Ramjet tackled Starscream. He started punching his face, until Starscream rotated his guns at the shoulder to point at Ramjet, and shot him point blank.

Ramjet fell off, but soon got up, just as Starscream did the same. Starscream punched Ramjet in the jaw, and then staggered back, rubbing his sore hand.

Starscream activated his jets and jumped back, putting distance between him and Ramjet. Ramjet charged forward, and Starscream shot him in the knee with a null ray. Ramjet went down, his left leg useless.

"Aw, what's the matter Ramjet, can't quite beat me can you?" Starscream mocked.

Ramjet turned over, pointed his left leg, and fired his two thrusters built into it at Starscream, at a wider spray.

The attack knocked Starscream over, and allowed Ramjet to get back up. Ramjet limped over to Starscream, but his immobilized leg slowed him, so Starscream hit him with his Nullray, deactivating him.

Starscream stood, victorious saying, "Does anyone else want to challenge me?"

Slipstream carefully considered it, but concluded that the fight had not softened up Starscream to an extent.

Thundercracker lifted up the deactivated Ramjet and prepared to take him to the Med-bay.

"No, no mercy to traitors," Starscream said.

Immediately Blitzwing and Skywarp burst out laughing, with Slipstream and Acid-Storm joining in. Thundercracker tried to contain himself, but his smirk still showed.

"What? What?" Starscream asked, oblivious to the irony.

"Scream, just shut up," Blitzwing said.

"Fine, if you don't like how I run things, then I'm transferring myself to Earth, and taking command there," Starscream said, "If Megatron wants to continue his Nebulos campaign, then I'm taking over the Earth initiative."

"Finally, I kinda miss that place," Thundercracker said.

"Yeah, well you can keep missing it, I'm taking charge there as Second in Command of the Decepticon forces, not Seeker commander. Right now, I herby disband the Seeker Brigade!" Starscream said indignantly.

That stopped the laughing. The bots in the room stared at Starscream in silence, until Slipstream said,

"Finally! Primus, it took you this long, but I finally don't have to put up with you."

"Yeah, I was thinking about going back to the Science Brigade, Mixmaster and I have got a Project we've been looking at," Acid-Storm said thoughtfully.

"Wait, Starscream you can't do this, we've been flying together since the start, and the Seeker team has remained since Helex, we can't just quit now," Thundercracker said.

"I decreed it, it's done, no more Seekers, you are all to be transferred to your new places. Good-bye." With that, Starscream left in a huff.

They were all left to ponder, Blitzwing, uncaring as he wasn't a seeker, left to finish his repair cycle, and Thundercracker followed him, needing to drop Ramjet off at his repair bay. Skywarp was pissed he didn't get word in, and he Acid Storm and Slipstream returned to their rooms.

The next day, the seekers prepped for reassignment. Thrust and Skywarp would be heading to Nebulos to join Sunstorm in the campaign, Slugslinger and Triggerhappy were sent as well, Scorponok apparently wanted to test an experiment out. Thundercracker was headed back to Cybertron to be placed in command of the aerial forces. Slipstream soon realized that Starscream had assigned their positions, as she was to be sent to a mining facility satellite called Al-Jabr, she cursed her fortune at being placed at such a remote and unimportant location. Ramjet was left on the planet and Dirge followed Starscream to Earth. Acid-Storm had himself sent back to the science facility, a mobile Space-Station, currently testing out planet breakers in the LU system.

The day after they prepped to leave. Slipstream said no good-byes to anyone, good riddance to them all. The Cone-heads bid each other good luck, and Acid-Storm bid Thundercracker a farewell.

She prepared to leave in her shuttle when Thundercracker approached her.

"Slipstream wait," Slipstream rolled her optics, but turned to her fellow seeker, "What is it?"

She was surprised when Thundercracker pulled her into a hug, an earth custom he must have picked up.

"Good luck," he said to her.

Slipstream was caught off guard by the gesture, but soon remembered that it was normal of Thundercracker.

The gesture still made her smile a bit, and she returned the hug

"At least you've got a cushy new job," she said.

Thundercracker disengaged, and told her, "Hey, opportunity is everywhere, you just have to look for it."

Slipstream headed up to the shuttle, waving at him, and watching him approach a sour looking Ramjet, he went to shake the white-red bot's hand, and when Ramjet took it, he pulled him into a hug as well.

A thought hit Slipstream, the seekers were finally disbanded, once Megatron's greatest legion, now shattered over petty arguments. She felt a pang of regret, as she watched her "family" go. The emotion caught her off-guard, and she wondered if this was how Thundercracker felt, being the "Sentimental Idiot" of the bunch.

She sighed, the full regret of having lost her position in the world setting in. The auto-pilot informed her that they were headed for Al-Jabr and the ship set off.

* * *

Rate and Review

Lugnut: Generations body

Astrotrain/Blitzwing: Approximations of their original bodies.

Seekers: Fall of Cybertron and War for Cybertron bodies

Triggerhappy and Slugslinger: G1 bodies.

Vehicons: Prime Bodies

Powerglide: G1 body.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Own nothing: Enjoy.

* * *

Rec Room 3: Al-Jabr

Airachnid reclined on the chair, staring at the broadcast monitor. It was playing old propaganda, like Megatron's rally cry at Tarn though she found it quite dreary.

Ser-Ket came in at that moment, watching the broadcaster.

"Didn't he make the same speech when we set up New Kaon?" she asked.

"Probably," Airachnid said, and then asked, "Where's the new girl?"

"She's here," Ser-Ket said gesturing towards Lyzack.

Lyzack stepped into the rec-room. She saw the three broadcast monitors, only one on, and several reclining chairs. The walls had numerous laser and ordinance holes from when Con's discharged their guns to relax.

"Um Hello, I'm Lyzack, pleased to meet you," Lyzack said, giving a nervous smile off, and reaching out a hand.

Airachnid stood up and shook it, "Airachnid. Charmed," she said.

Lyzack continued to smile, a little anxious at meeting new people, she'd only talked to Esmeral and her Brother's team, for most of her assignment back with Deathsaurus, and before them, her graduating class.

Airachnid listened and committed her voice to memory, anticipating the sound of her screams.

"So, you just transferred from Deathsaurus's unit? Is he still an old windbag?" Airachnid asked.

"General Deathsaurus is… kinda theatrical I guess," Lyzack said.

"Theatrical's an understatement," Ser-Ket said, "I've seen his rants, the term 'curses' and 'take over the world' were used so many times they've lost meaning to me."

"He's too full of himself," Airachnid said.

Lyzack shrugged.

"So where'd you come from?" Ser-Ket asked changing the subject.

"Carburisia," Lyzack said. "You're a farm girl?" Airachnid asked, half tempted to joke about it.

"Oh yes, my brother and I grew up there before the war," Lyzack said, oblivious to the other bot's disdain, "The Energon farms were so quiet back then. Have either of you ever been there?"

"No," Airachnid said, "I was made in Iacon, as part of some type of prehensile initiative." She shrugged at the subject.

"Huh, I was Forged after the war broke out, as part of Shockwave's hunter program, what a joke," Ser-Ket said.

"You can't really think your birth was a joke do you?" Lyzack asked.

Ser-Ket's reply was a smirk.

"Anyway it's neat to see another Femme-con around here," Airachnid said, "It's just us and the general nowadays."

"So, what do you guys do for fun?" Lyzack asked.

Airachnid smiled, "Business is pleasure, we have all sorts of prisoners who need to tell us about where their forces are."

"Course, the fun part is making them talk," Ser-Ket said.

Lyzack nodded, suddenly more uncomfortable around them. Under Deathsaurus, interrogations were, mostly, painless, Hellbat just needed to make Eye-Contact. Lyzack had witnessed several torture sessions, and she'd decided to steer clear of them long ago. Lyzack saw that both Cons were staring at her, smiling those threatening insincere smiles that she'd seen on the faces of many a sadist. She took a step back, and immediately regretted it as the two had noticed.

"Oh come-on, don't leave," Ser-Ket said.

"Yeah, we just met you, what's the matter, are you scared?" Airachnid said.

Lyzack noticed that both were drawing closer, and began to get more nervous. Airachnid savored the unease on Lyzack's face, and let out a laugh. The laugh was calculated, not to sound threatening, but to diffuse the situation. After all, a fight in the rec room would have the General ban their privileges, again.

Lyzack jumped slightly, but calmed down a bit.

Airachnid patted her on the shoulder and said, "Calm down will ya, jeez."

"You're so jumpy," Ser-Ket said, smirking.

Lyzack let out another nervous laugh, a habit, which she had been developing.

Airachnid and Ser-Ket left to go back to their post, successfully sizing up Lyzack.

Lyzack was left in the break room, and collapsed on one of the chairs. "I just blew my first impression, great," Lyzack muttered.

* * *

Lyzack stood on the lower observation deck. The planet had 7 Twilight Elevators on it, each on top of a mine. An eighth twilight elevator and mine were being constructed. The Twilight elevators were high-speed elevators, long hollow shafts from the planets surface all the way up into the atmosphere. A small base sat on top of each, mostly consisting of a docking mechanism. Al-Jabr would dock at it, and the materials brought up on the elevator were collected, sometimes soldiers and more supplies were sent down. The Highspeeds made it impossible for most Organics to travel on them, and equipment had to be strapped down. There had been five separate occasions where the elevators were severely damaged, either by guerilla forces or the local Autobot unit. There existed a patrol at the top, two patrols around the shaft, and a base at the bottom where the entrance was protected, and the miners and slaves stayed. Lyzack was assigned to a unit to patrol the ground, and, because she was a flier, she would finish her tour of duty guarding the shaft. There were two miniature "stop" zones 1/3 of the way up, and 2/3 of the way up. These stations were where the fliers landed, to refuel, and the attending commander could analyze any materials sent up to that level for any bombs or terrorist activity. In addition to Al-Jabr, three Dreadnaught class Decepticon Battleships patrolled the space around it, occasionally docking at a Twilight Elevator to accept supplies, or to Al-Jabr itself, to exchange units or supplies. In case of an emergency, the air-unit 1/3 of the way up, primary unit, had most of their troops scrambled for rapid response to the threat. Standard procedure was a bombing run, then letting the ground forces engage, while the air unit picked off any stragglers and assisted them. Secondary air unit split in half, with one half reinforcing the few troops left at the primary outpost, until the threat was handled. If the threat increased, they were to move to attack. If the threat went critical, Al-Jabr or another Dreadnaught was to dock at the Twilight elevator and deploy a response team. If the elevator didn't work, reinforcement troops were dropped down to the planet, either in atmospheric entry armor (stripping them of their altmodes), or through smaller space-ships. Much of this infrastructure and patrol/collection system was installed by Strika for a more efficient collection regimen, so far it was successful.

Octane stood at the foyer, and looked down on Squad E, and looked back at his data-pad. "Alright, you're being deployed to site 4, ground unit," Octane said, "You're tour of duty will last for a month, after which, the airborne among you will be reassigned to primary aerial guard. You're mission is to patrol the area around the mine in search of any threat, as usual."

Lyzack had the mission briefing inside her processor. Squad E was divided into five teams of seven units. They patrolled five different sectors around Mine Sight 4. If they grew suspicious, they were to radio the sight's command, with 4 threat levels. Disturbance: when they found something suspicious, Scout, where they found a scout party or single unit, Threat when they found a raiding party, and finally Assault, where a terrorist attack, or full frontal assault took place. The first alerted the command, the second had a small contingent sent, the third had a larger contingent sent. The fourth sent that contingent, and had a team of mining drones dig under the attackers, and launch a sneak attack with reinforcements. Third and fourth level threats brought down the primary aerial team.

"You know your missions, dismissed," Octane said.

Lyzack went with the 6 other soldiers she'd been assigned to. Of note was a guardian robot that was in each group. It was in it's stocky form, but she'd seen a few before, growing into their tall investigative form, and then their heavy armored Battle form.

Al-Jabr had docked with the twilight Elevator for Mine Site number 4, and the 35 members of Squad E spread out over it. There were 5 little shelters over the wide platform, where the squads entered, and found 10 seats in each bolted to the floor. Lyzack and her team sat in every seat, and put the harnesses on, magnetically attaching to the chairs. Windsweeper was polishing his seat before he sat on it. There were a few supplies outside of the shelters strapped or bolted onto the deck. Other Decepticons unloaded them, and when they had finished, Octane activated the lift and sent them all down.

The drop made them feel almost weightless; she felt the harness dig into her, as they dropped completely. The force exerted on her was pretty great, and she gritted her teeth down. After a minute, she felt the elevator begin to slow. The Pressure decreased, and the elevator finally stopped.

Octane's voice came on over a speaker that Lyzack noticed was built into the shelter. "Final destination, everybody out,"

Her colleagues and her left the shelter when the automatic door slid open. They crossed the deck; Lyzack noting the other departing troops doing the same. She followed her teammates: The Guardian robot, a dune-buggy sniper named Hardtop, Windsweeper, a Vehicon car trooper named ARC-5, a grey action-master named Feargear, and they were lead by a Firecon named Sparkstalker. The 7 arrived at a Dropship, which they boarded, and it flew them to their destination.

When they arrived, the previous team boarded it, and flew back to base. They had landed in a mountainous sector, on top of a Mesa. Most mountains sat below them, but others appeared rising above the mesa, three rose up into the clouds. Lyzack looked around, there was a small hovel with a lookout tower here at the outpost.

A portly drone hovered out to meet them, flanked by 2 diagnostic drones. "Greetings Squad E Team 2, I am Deceptitran, I oversee outpost 2, I welcome you," Deceptitran said.

"Indeed," Sparkstalker said, then to his squad, "Alright, familiarize with the base, we move out in an hour."

Lyzack entered the facility, it was a small two story hovel. A large Access computer took up much of the bottom floor. There was a port that Deceptitran plugged into to observe and access the computer as well as recharge. There were similar ports where the Diagnostic drones recharged.

The Second floor contained a ladder to the vantage point, as well as three energon distillers, where they were to recharge. All in all, there wasn't much, so Hardtop struck up a conversation with Feargear.

"So Feargear, what's it like not having an alt-mode?"

"It's different, it's like the feeling of transforming is gone, and I don't even notice it. I'm faster and stronger than ever," Feargear said.

"Do you miss your alt-mode?" Lyzack asked.

Feargear turned to her, "You're the new girl, Lyzack right?"

Lyzack nodded, her profile had been made common knowledge to all the Decepticons at the base, just like all of their profiles were at her disposal. They could tell she was new by the amount of days logged under her stay here.

"Well, I don't miss it, not really, I just turned into a car, not that special," Feargear said.

"Yeah, I always thought about the nucleon injection, I wonder what it's like," ARC-5 said.

The three were somewhat surprised at the Trooper's insight, most of the Vehicons, called Genericons even by their comrades, were fairly taciturn and thought to be non-sentient. However, if they were kept in commission long enough, they start forming a personality. ARC-5 had several scars on him, repaired in all but the cosmetic level, to show off his battle prowess that kept him alive when all of the other Vehicons in his commission batch had passed on.

"I love to fly," Lyzack said, "I wouldn't give that up for the world."

"Personally, I can't imagine a life without an alt-mode, bonuses or not," Hardtop said.

Feargear only shrugged.

Downstairs, Windsweeper was polishing the computer screen, and taking the keys off the computer to remove excess dust from behind them. Deceptitran was getting irritated at it.

Sparkstalker received a call from Shockblast, their commanding officer who was on team 1. Shockblast was a tall Decepticon, his legs and shoulders were treads, one hand had three claws on it instead of fingers, the other was a large blaster, and his face was a black slab with a single green eye. He had horns going up from the slab and a green and purple color scheme.

"The other teams have radioed in their placement, you may begin your patrol when ready," Shockblast said before terminating the call.

Sparkstalker never expected much conversation from the Squad E leader, and simply went back inside.

"Squad E Team 2, assemble," Sparkstalker barked.

The 6 bots lined themselves up outside.

"We're going out for patrol now, Hardtop, you are to remain on the lookout tower here and are to alert us for any and all disturbances," Sparkstalker said.

"Yes sir," Hardtop said.

"Lyzack and Windsweeper, you are to fly reconnaissance around the perimeter, alert us to anything important."

"Yes sir," they said.

"And Windsweeper, don't go firing at dirt clumps, please," Sparkstalker said, annoyance on his face from all the times Windsweeper was assigned under him.

"Everyone else will patrol with me, dismissed."

With that, he turned, and walked towards the nearest hill edge, and descended it followed by ARC-5, Feargear and the Guardian, which had turned into look-out mode.

Lyzack and Windsweeper took to the skies transforming and flying off towards the nearest mountain.

Hardtop went back into the hovel and climbed up onto the outpost. It was a bucket like lookout crowsnest. He worked the controls like he had done for all the other outposts he'd been assigned to during his time here, this one included. The top detached from the base, it rose up and ascended 100 yards into the air, where he took out his binoculars and scanned the horizon and nearby mountains.

* * *

Rate and Review. This chapter was mostly used to set up procedure and exposition.

Hardtop: Transformers Cybertron body.

Feargear: Generic grey body with few signs of alt-mode.

Sparkstalker: Stocky G1 body.

Deceptitran: G1 body

ARC-5: Purple Decepticon Trooper from Transformers Prime

Guardian robot: from Fall of Cybertron.

Shockblast: Transformers Energon Body.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Arrival

I own nothing

* * *

Acid-Storm and Mixmaster each sat adjacent to a large acid-proof black cauldron. Mixmaster added a new chemical and the pot bubbled, casting them both in green light (the room's lights were dimmed for effect).

Mixmaster and Acid-Storm let out a mad cackle at their newest concoction. They then stopped when they remembered that they had no idea what it was.

* * *

On Nebulos: Thrust sprinted through the street, his left wing lying several blocks away, shrapnel having torn it off. Bombs exploded a building far ahead of him, raining debris down on the street.

A Large tank driven by the Nebulon's followed him, firing another shell at him, and eviscerating a mall.

Thrust continued to run, before the tank was shot to pieces. Standing triumphant in the wreckage was Triggerhappy, wielding a newly upgraded gun, which he claimed was piloted by a nebulon. Thrust didn't trust anything from someone as crazy as Triggerhappy.

* * *

On Earth: Starscream was giving a grandiose speech which Viewfinder was broadcasting, missing his twins and wondering how they were doing. Viewfinder was snapped back from his musing by Starscream's continued talking.

Dirge had lead a bombing on an Autobot Refinery, and Starscream had just captured numerous resources for the underwater base.

* * *

On Cybertron: Thundercracker lead a raid on a temporary Autobot Facility, he took prisoners, and got pissy when Straxus had them tossed into the smelting pool.

* * *

On a Ship in space: Slipstream was having none of the amazing adventures. She'd spent a week on this trip, with it accidently blowing an engine and needing a repair.

She would be arriving at Al-Jabr in another week.

She sighed, and wondered how this new assignment would play out. Al-Jabr was pretty remote, but Megatron's General of Destruction ran it.

Slipstream was pretty surprised to see one of the most elite Decepticons was in charge of a mining operation.

Strika's position was up there with Onslaught, Razorclaw, Obsidian, Hun-Grr, Bludgeon, and Deathsaurus. She was a member of the Conclave, which comprised of those high ranking cons. She'd brought ruination to an entire Star-system and conquered it in the name of the Decepticon Empire.

Now, she was in charge of a resource gathering outpost. Slipstream always suspected someone like Deathsaurus or Onslaught would run those, maybe Hun-Grr, though he would probably consume more resources than were mined.

Slipstream also knew Strika as a merit based General, your position and accomplishments outside her unit didn't matter, she only gave you position based on your achievements under her command.

Slipstream saw this as an inconvenience because she was on one of the most elite Decepticon teams in the army, however, due to the events that lead up to their disbandment (i.e. all the failures they experienced as a unit), she probably wouldn't get much with that on her resume, even less when she recalled that Strika hated Starscream. With that in mind, she supposed it was a good thing that the general went for Tangible Objectivity.

The shuttle was full of soldiers, vehicon drones: ground, air and miners. Slipstream saw them being used more and more, their production had greatly increased, using the resources gathered, and it was rumored, and Slipstream shuddered at the thought, fallen Decepticons and Autobots. They could be slaughtered by the dozens, but enough could overrun the enemy, and Slipstream had seen it being done before. They also had a tendency to be more loyal than the average con.

During her time on the ship, Slipstream found that the newly made troopers weren't much for conversation, and got bored until they arrived. She did manage to talk to a few other passengers: There was one diagnostic droid that seemed particularly chatty about battles, questioning the strategy displayed by Hun-Gur in the battle for the sunny planet Thrush. Hun-Gur's plan was one of endurance, as his base was a solar powered defense fortress. He was on about the time it took to win the war as Hun-Gur held that place for decades before victory.

Slipstream also conversed with Flamefeather, who was considerably less eloquent, and got pissed at a trooper for brushing up against him. He proceeded to rip of said trooper's arm and clobber him to death with it.

The ship finally docking was a mercy, she bid good-bye to the drone and went up to the guy in charge, Octane.

Octane looked up at her from his data-pad. He always oversaw loading and unloading, and always pointed the new guests to where they should go. He directed Slipstream and Flamefeather to Strika's office, and had the rest of the troopers follow him for assignment. The Diagnostic Drone he sent off to data processing.

The two went into Strika's office, and were ordered to enter. Each was given a code to scan which gave them access to the data banks as well as the bios of their coworkers. Strika gave them the run down and their assignments and assigned them to, thankfully different, rooms.

Slipstream was dismissed, having to report for duty tomorrow.

She arrived at her room, she assumed that it was like all the others, a data port, some shelves and two recharge slabs. Curiously, she didn't have a roommate.

Slipstream went off to explore the vessel.

* * *

On Decaboid:

Hardtop alerted the team to a set of natives climbing across a mountain range.

The Natives were biomechanical, having scaly orange skin augmented with cybernetics. Their faces had a mess of wires protruding from the back, and three small red optics on one side, as well as a large organic eye on the other.

It was a team of five, each holding a blaster, probably hoping to put up some sort of resistance.

Lyzack and Windsweeper were ordered to ignore it and keep patrolling, in case it was only a diversion, while Sparkstalker lead his team to confront them.

They snuck to an adjacent cliff, and waited for Sparkstalker to give the order. He transmitted the Okay, and Hardtop fired a single shot from his rifle across the distance, hitting the leader in the side of the head. The head exploded in a mass of goo, sparks, flesh, and metal.

The Members were surprised, and even more surprised when the Guardian unleashed a barrage of missiles at the party.

The explosion killed a native, and severely wounded the other three.

One native lay on the ground, one tried to flee, and another fired a shot off at the Decepticon's direction. The shot hit the cliff edge and burned a hole into it. The fleeing native was felled by a sniper bullet to the chest, and ARC-5 opened fire the one who had shot at them, killing him as well.

The four got to the cliff ledge and stared at the final member, his leg hung, bloody and useless, shrapnel from the grenade requiring amputation to help him.

He stared up at them with his one functioning mechanical eye, as the organic one and the other mechanical two had been permanently blinded by the blast.

"So, we got ourselves a prisoner then," Sparkstalker said, ordering Feargear to take the wounded Decaboidian back to the shelter.

He did so, and Sparkstalker went over to the one that ARC-5 had killed.

He took a few cords out from his arm and plugged them into the helmet. A while ago, Sparkstalker had hacked their communication network, and Strika had lead several successful strikes against the populace, it got him promoted to team leader. After that incident their communication network was defunct (as they stopped using it), and they transferred messages the old fashion way.

Sparkstalker listened to the recorded memories of the Decaboidian. He skipped over the boring parts, how this Decaboidian had a family, how his daughter had been dying after Decepticon blaster fire had crippled her, and how after losing her he joined a resistance. Sparkstalker examined the memories after that, but was dismayed to learn that it was only the five of them that sought out to stop them in what was probably a suicide mission.

He unplugged himself and ordered the two near him to leave the bodies.

The surviving member was brought to the diagnostic drones to repair, or rather remove all the damage and replace it with more cyber parts, he was shipped out on a transport to the Twilight elevator, to be taken aboard a ship and interrogated.

Lyzack and Windsweeper were informed of the happenings, and they continued their patrol.

Lyzack asked Windsweeper "Hey, what do you think about - about all of this?"

"All of what?" Windsweeper asked.

"The occupation?" Lyzack asked.

"They're a disgusting partially organic species, what's there to think about. We're just gathering resources here, and then we move on to the next one." Windsweeper said.

"I-I suppose," Lyzack said.

* * *

Slipstream had missed the assignment giving, so she was placed on an aerial squad patrolling the space around the ship.

* * *

With the month over, their patrol had finished, there were no other alarms after the first, and Squad E Team 2 was heading home.

"I'm telling you guys, Earth is great, I really hope I get assigned there again," Hardtop said, "They've got so many comics there, so much escapist media, so much fiction."

"Huh, but it's infested with organics," Feargear said, "I don't them to be crawling over me."

"Maybe you could get a transfer to Mars, though it's kinda lonely," Hardtop said, "Thundercracker and I were stuck there for almost a year with a bunch of drones. We spent the time watching Earth Television, marvelous stuff."

"I think the Organics are making you go soft in the head," ARC-5 said.

Hardtop merely shrugged and said, "Organic or not, it beats watching old war vids and Decepticon Propaganda."

"Any of you guys been to Hedonia?" Sparkstalker asked, "Wonderful place to take a vacation."

"Yeah," Feargear said, "You see those waitress bot's, they go around without any chest plates, I'm tellin you, it's hot."

Lyzack cocked her head and gave him a confused look, "What does that mean?"

"It means they get all sorts of dirt and bacteria into their circuits from all the organics and grime on that planet. Also, If you spill drinks on them they short out," Windsweeper said.

"That's unfortunate," Lyzack said, still confused at the practice.

"I went there to get away from the idiots that were my old team, and I kid you not, my migraines have vanished completely." Sparkstalker said, "They had these delightful molten steel baths, my-my just thinking about them makes me feel better."

The conversation of assignments and vacation spots continued until their ship docked at the base and they caught the Twilight elevator to the Primary air-base. Windsweeper, Lyzack and several other troops disembarked, and a few troops got on, and the elevator continued up.

Lyzack and Winsweeper reported to the officer in charge of Primary Aerial patrol at the Site 4 Elevator. He was red Decepticon jet named Airwave.

The base was a platform around the circumference of the elevator. It was a large ring around the end, 4 stories in height, with the third story having a large circular runway sticking out for the fliers.

Lyzack also noticed several helicopter drones and others with hovering alt-modes. She concluded that the lack of elevation made them more useful for stationary attacks or pursuing ground based targets. Among these hovering Alt-Modes was Airachnid, who turned to her and smiled.

Rate and Review

* * *

Airwave looks like his G1 self, but not a micromaster.

Viewfinder looks like his G1 cartoon self, but with his toys shoulder pads, so he looks like his IDW self.

Flamefeather looks like his stocky G1 self.


End file.
